Hey Crafty Friends,

Lately it has been Birthday season for my daughter’s friends. At this age they are difficult to buy for so we have been going for the tween gift that always seems to win, a gift card to Claire’s.

Giving a gift card to someone older is no biggie, a cute card and voila, instant happiness! For a tween though it just needs a little more something something, Ya know what I mean?

You may have seen this photo I posted on Instagram over the weekend.

for the project above I used the new Hooray die set and Surprise Box stamp set and dies. I also used some silver glitter Nuvo drops and pink bakers twine.

We had some leftover gift boxes from Valentine’s day that we purchased at Michael’s (they have several colors in the gift wrapping section) so instead of making a handmade card, I decided to do a (semi) handmade gift box, similar to the one I created above.

In addition to the pink gift box I also grabbed some basket filler shred, and the gift card. (later on we decided to add some candy)

I grabbed some of my favorite Honey Bee Stamps and dies. Today I will be using Little Pickup stamp set and dies, Surprise box stamp set and dies, Welcome Baby stamp set.

First I chose a selection of patterned papers from Doodlebug. I used this 6×6 paper pad, and I pulled out a selection of colors that I thought would go well together. I die cut several of the traditional shape balloon from the Surprise box die set and then stamped all of the balloons using a shade of ink that matched the pattern paper used.

After the die cutting and stamping was all finished. I took some finger daubers and added a little of the same ink I stamped with to the edges of the balloon. It’s a simple step but it adds some dimension to your die cuts and a bit of pop to the overall design. I also took a white water-based sharpie marker and added a little shine mark to the balloons.

I stamped and cut out the truck and gifts from the Little Pickup stamp and die set and colored them in with my copic markers. I also added a little clear glaze gel pen to the windshield and window.

I arranged all of the balloons on the box, popping some of them on foam tape and a couple I added two layers of foam tape to get a varying amount of heights to the balloons. Using a black glaze gel pen I added the balloon strings. Then I added the truck with the gifts in the back to the box, also with foam tape.

There is a great sentiment set that coordinates with the little pickup stamp set called Sending You sentiments. I love that set but the words “sending you” were smaller and didn’t seem to fit well for my box. I grabbed the brand new Welcome Baby stamp set because it also includes the words “special delivery” in a great font. I curved the words slightly and I stamped those out with black versamark ink. I sprinkled on some clear embossing powder with glitter and heat set. I cut around both words and glued those to the handle of my box.

I think this will be fun for my daughter to gift to her best friend (we are also going to tie a few balloons to the handle before gifting) and I hope that the recipient loves it as much as I loved making it for her.

I hope you got a little inspiration for your gift-giving today. Thank you so much for stopping by!